I am very pleased to report that the Arcadia Public Library and the book store in the Library managed by the group of volunteer supporters called the Friends of the Library are both continuing to do remarkably well.
Scott Hettrick
Director of Library and Museum Services Mary Beth Hayes says in this month’s Friends spring newsletter that nearly 44,000 people visited the library in January — that’s nearly 80% of the entire 56,000 population of Arcadia! Nearly 66,000 items were checked out in January.
Meanwhile, Friends President Jerry Selmer says the book store, which generates the tens of thousands of dollars that the Friends donate to the Library each year, continues to operate from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. six days a week, funding great Library programs like the Summer Reading Program while providing you the greatest books at the greatest prices.
In addition to the volunteers who staff the book store, there are others who labor in the basement sorting through daily donations of boxes filled with thousands of books and then re-stocking the shelves of the book store. Mr. Selmer requests that donors use good judgment in their donations and not just dump all their battered books that are not befitting anything but the trash pile. This creates a lot of unnecessary work for the already overworked volunteers. Also, use your head — if you are getting rid of your textbooks, computer programs and materials because they are out of date, or becuse they are in such bad shape, that means no one else will want them either. So, don’t both donating them. Similarly, empty CD and DVD cases offer not benefit for the store.
In fact, the book store will not accept any textbooks that are more than about ten years old, and no magazines of any age or kind.
Those restrictions aside, there are still plenty of novels and non-fiction books and recent textbooks of great value and the Friends and Library staff greatly appreciate your generosity.
In this age of a rapid decline in printed publications, a growing preference for reading digitally, and an overall downturn in reading in general, it’s so encouraging to see such support on multiple levels for reading and the Library.
— By Scott Hettrick